Caitlin Atwood EDU Blog

  How are you a different teacher and/or person compared to when you began student teaching? Before I started student teaching, I did not have a lot of confidence in myself. I had a lot of struggles with imposter syndrome and always thought about how I'm not good enough to teach and I was worried about if I would even succeed as a teacher. As I have gone through both of my placements, I have gained a lot of confidence in myself. I've realized that there's a reason why I'm here and a reason why I've made it this far in my college career. I have gotten to thrive within my two placements and figure out what I want to teach and what I don't want to teach, which has been very helpful. I know what I want to do after I graduate from Coe now and I'm excited to see what's out there for me. I have also realized that I have matured a lot since I started teaching. As I have student taught, I have had A LOT on my plate. Usually after student teaching, I would work a ...

There are a few things that I have noticed about the culture in my schools. One thing that is very emphasized within the district is the "Marion Way," which is showing respect, responsibility, integrity, and being safe. If you tell a student to follow the Marion Way, most of them understand what that means. Another thing I have noticed within the school is the way staff/faculty are willing to help out their students. Staff make sure that students are getting what they need to be successful, which can be hard to do sometimes in a bigger district. We also have meetings about students who are on Tier 2/Tier 3 plans to see what is working for them, what isn't, and what else we can do to help them further.